Scientist Explains How Wearing A Mask Can Mean All The Difference Between Staying Healthy & Falling Sick

Just because lockdowns across the world are being lifted doesn't mean that the highly contagious virus is gone and people still need to follow proper safety protocol to keep themselves safe.

Part of this is ensuring that you and everyone around you wears a mask while interacting with others.

Also read: Widespread Use Of Face Masks Combined With Lockdowns May Prevent Further Waves Of COVID-19

Reuters

However, in some places, masks are only 'recommended' and not compulsory yet. In fact, citizens of Florida went on to protest against having to wear a mask and presented arguments like, "This is God's breathing system and masks will kill us". (Reminder: Please stay in school)

So, researcher Rich Davis took to Twitter to show how important it is to wear a mask using a simple experiment. He demonstrated using agar cultures how masks greatly reduce the spread of respiratory droplets and bacteria which lowers the chances of spreading the infection.

Also read: Wear Face Mask During Sex To Prevent COVID-19 Spread, Claim Harvard Experts

Twitter/ Rich Davis

Here are his tweets:

What does a mask do? Blocks respiratory droplets coming from your mouth and throat.

Two simple demos:

First, I sneezed, sang, talked & coughed toward an agar culture plate with or without a mask. Bacteria colonies show where droplets landed. A mask blocks virtually all of them. pic.twitter.com/ETUD9DFmgU

¡ª Rich Davis, PhD, D(ABMM), MLS ??? (@richdavisphd) June 26, 2020

Davis explains how a mask blocks respiratory droplets from spreading in the air, a make-or-break point when one considers the pandemic. He demonstrated it by sneezing on an agar culture plate with and then without a mask.

Also read: Meet The Doctor Who Powered India's Decision To Make Face Masks Compulsory

What about keeping your distance?

Second demo: I set open bacteria culture plates 2, 4 and 6 feet away and coughed (hard) for ~15s. I repeated this without a mask.

As seen by number of bacteria colonies, droplets mostly landed <6 ft, but a mask blocked nearly all of them. pic.twitter.com/8wDdvIHHMa

¡ª Rich Davis, PhD, D(ABMM), MLS ??? (@richdavisphd) June 26, 2020

He also showed the importance of distance and emphasised on the fact that no matter the physical difference, the mask always blocked the droplets.

I'm aware that this simple (n=1) demo isn't how you culture viruses or model spread of SARS-CoV-2.

But colonies of normal bacteria from my mouth/throat show the spread of large respiratory droplets, like the kind we think mostly spread #COVID19, and how a mask can block them! pic.twitter.com/16azsiIbZd

¡ª Rich Davis, PhD, D(ABMM), MLS ??? (@richdavisphd) June 26, 2020

DOES NOT SHOW: what is the number, size, and distribution of respiratory droplets produced by coughing/talking etc.

DOES NOT SHOW: could these droplets carry viruses (like SARS-CoV-2), does a mask block THOSE

(Based on what we know you can intuit/infer this, but it's not shown)

¡ª Rich Davis, PhD, D(ABMM), MLS ??? (@richdavisphd) June 27, 2020

It is extremely important to understand the gravity of the situation and not act recklessly. Wearing a mask is not an inconvenience; it's literally a life-saver right now. The world is in a fragile state and each and every country needs to control the spread of the virus.

Reuters

So, if you come across someone who refuses to follow this protocol, show them this experiment. Educate people.

Also, we hope there is Twitter in Florida because people from Palm Beach could really use this information.